Friday, November 28, 2008

I'm sure that anyone who so far has read all my recent blog entries on "Joe Hasselvander's Blog Of Doom" have come to realize that music has a great deal of influence in my life! I have actually marked time by connecting it with bands, music styles and rock and roll events!Some people think I'm wasting my time giving all of this too much thought or that I'm just crazy or the most condescending and narrow minded of theories, that I need to just flat out grow up which brings me to this entry's subject!

In the thick of the British Invasion of the 1960's bands and musicians were finally getting their deserved recognition unlike the players of the 1940's and 1950's who were just forgettable names on the back of some band leader's jazz record that later died in complete obscurity never being connected to their incredible contributions to music again!

In the 1960's the music industry was driven by what the people wanted and the people wanted to know their idols up close and personal! To be a star in those days you had to work very hard and be extremely talented and self motivated and most important you had to be able to duplicate your sound on the live stage! This new music commanded respect!

I thought for sure that the music industry had gotten past that kind of thinking and treatment toward deserved musical genius for good!

Well folks, it's back and it's sucking all the air right out of the room for all of us in music who do this for a living and have dedicated our lives to creating the best music and live presentations possible for you, the public!

It seems now that the people making all the money and getting all the airplay are really not musicians at all but merely groups or personalities focusing entirely on spoken word (Rap) or dance (Girl/Boy bands)!

A very washed up Britney Spears attempting a comeback on the world's worst music awards on the plastic and shallow MTV network! It's hard to hide behind a lie when in reality this musical act isn't about music at all but about burlesque and in that business, when the looks are gone you've got nothing!

This is what our future looks like! Take a good look and listen to what this targeted media specimen believes to be reality! This is the pure unadulterated dumbing down of our society! It is all part and parcel of the contributions made by the new world order media to brainwash us in to buying anything they want us to buy including their philosophy of sex and death! With all the chaos they influence you would think the government would step in and stop the media from preaching this base life style of self centered excess! They can't and do you know why?They have vested interest in this crap and are probably behind it in the first place!

It is no longer about perfecting a style of music original to the individual artist or the craftsmanship involved in developing the songs and the image!

It's clear that record companies are only interested in providing background music for dirty dancing, drug trafficking, guns and yes, murder! Do you think I'm nuts? Read on!

The governments of the world have always tried to demonize rock and roll, heavy metal and the people that write and perform it when in fact it is the major labels not the bands that push that agenda to romanticize immorality and rebellion to children! Young minds easily gravitate towards alternative ideologies to "BE DIFFERENT" in the name of getting attention and bettering their odds of getting laid! For the record companies this is an endless money maker!Do you still think I'm wrong? Maybe you too need to wake up and smell the coffee!

The crap these record companies are selling the kids now has nothing to do with music and everything to do with pimps, whores, guns, cocaine, gang activity and most of all the promise of easy money for these slime balls who's kids only go to the finest schools and have the finest of everything and above all are safe from the garbage that they themselves perpetuate!

The music industry now sells death in place of entertainment to the masses who have successfully been fooled in to thinking that ghetto gang life is glamorous! Anyone with sense knows that it's a dead end!

Are the record labels actually suggesting that we all live in an abysmal world of street violence and cower in our homes while our children and our windows get shot up?

It is about major music labels and their owners and employees downsizing their companies in order to live even higher on the hog than they already do by lowering their musical standards even more by exclusively creating and controlling the groups they sign and relying on one or two vocalists and a keyboardist in charge of synthetically duplicating drums and other instruments needed to make an album and thereby eliminating thousands of jobs and the salaries included that would be needed to create halfway decent pop music albums that the public demands!It is also cost effective to hire people who can't sing but only talk or "Rap"as finding good vocalists or bands is cost and time consuming! Seems they found a way around it all at our expense and at our children's expense!

Even some of the bigger independent labels who still are in the rock and roll and heavy metal business want instant monetary gratification NOW and not later! So today instead of developing groups over time they only sign and give work to death metal bands who play ridiculously fast so that you won't notice how bad they really are with singers who simply grunt and growl similar to "The Cookie Monster" making Cronos from "Venom" sound like Robert Goullette in comparison!

These bands are all disposable and there are millions of them lining up with their unreadable logos like an assembly line to be used , ripped off and then fired! They don't even get offered a last meal or a blindfold! This is now what they "the music industry"expect us to buy as the highest standards in music! Bands that are still holding on to their musical integrity are now being black balled in the business because to sign good bands would involve paying these groups for their good work and they don't want to start doing that again! Heaven forbid! which brings me to another important point!

The live music industry is now overpopulated with bands and musicians that "play it safe" and have yuppie computer geek day jobs and only play on the weekends as a "hobby" with their short hair and Metallica shirts they bought from Wal-Mart, further killing it for "real" bands, musicians and entertainers who do this for a living!

The owners of venues though don't care about quality they just want to sell liquor, in fact this is a dream come true for them! They have all adopted the fascist attitude that bands "play" and isn't that what children do? "Play?" This is how they morally justify not paying groups and they know that these weekend warriors don't really need money to play as they are loaded! How else could they afford all that outboard gear that they have no clue how to use or those expensive Paul Reid Smith guitars that would be used better as fine furniture instead of implements of rock?

Unfortunately the unprofessional hobbyist undercuts the professional musician by playing for free for these tactless bar owners with the false promise of exposure and the "Maybe next time" lie! Accepting these abysmal deals from venues and promoters is what has ruined the credibility of all musicians and has all but dissolved a proud occupation!

Hey! What ever happened to giving the people their money's worth? Don't club owners and promoters like staying in business? The same could be asked of the recording industry as it is now imploding because of the internet offering free downloads of the music they are trying to sell! If you ask me they've had this coming for some time! What ever happened to good business sense?

It's the dumbing down of society for money's sake and the profits that follow! The end results will be much like what happens in the classic science fiction movie"Planet Of The Apes" where the remaining population of earth imitate a long dead society much more advanced than theirs and don't know for the life of them why, save for a a chosen few!

Friday, November 21, 2008

This being the 7th entry in the Blog Of Doom and the final entry for November, 2008, I would like to share something very choice and significant to me and any one else who is a fan of early 1970's arena rock!

I have so far documented people. places and events that have shaped my career and made me the musician and entertainer that I am today! I would now like to enlighten you on another piece of that puzzle and that would be Washington D.C.'s most unknown and unprecedented music TV show, "Barry Richards Turn On" which first aired in late 1970!

There has never been a show like this before or sense! Every Friday night at 11:00 PM on WDCA Channel 20, a local underground radio jock hipster named Barry Richards would fill the TV screen with a close up of his bearded face introducing some of the worlds most legendary rock acts! These were all recorded live in the tiny WDCA studios with used painter's tarp backdrops and easels with black felt surfaces and Velcro dayglow letters, peace signs and eyeballs! This set had the feel of the old Bozo TV show we used to watch starring our local TV legend Willard Scott!

Barry Richards was a pioneer in Washington D.C. bringing to the area it's first underground radio! He also was the local concert promoter who brought nothing but the best hard rock entertainment to the nation's capitol! By far though his greatest contribution to the local music scene had to be his killer hard rock TV show," Barry Richards' Turn On"!

Instead of clowns and cartoons though we got The Bob Seger System, Alice Cooper, Crow, Mitch Rider, Humble Pie, Zephyr, Captain Beefheart and His Magic Band, Richie Havens, The Illusion and others too numerous to mention and too long ago to remember!

If we didn't catch it on Frday night, it would air the next day at 12:00 noon!Who could forget the performance of The Bob Seger System playing their hits from "Mongrel" at such deafening volume that the microphones good barely handle it or that Bob Seger himself was once an acid rock guitar hero long before becoming a commercial pop vocalist?

The Bob Seger System blasted hits off their 2nd LP, "Mongrel" , "Song for Rufus", "Ramblin' Gamblin' Man" and "Lucifer" on the Barry Richards' "Turn On"!

Who could forget the mighty "Crow" blast their 1970's hit "Cottage Cheese" with their monster drummer Denny Craswell growling like an animal during the middle drum solo segment?

Crow, a great band from minnesota who could rock with the best of them appeared on Barry Richards' "Turn On"!

Who could forget Alice Cooper's first appearance on TV since he was first exposed to America on Michael Quatro's "Midsummer Rock" special in 1970 or forget their performance of 'Eighteen" the week the single came out, all in front of a small audience?

Who could forget a young and multicolored hair Tommy Bolin burning lead guitar with Colorado's heaviest female fronted rock act, Zephyr?

Zephyr appeared on "Turn On" with a very young Tommy Bolan who went on to later play guitar for The James Gang and Deep Purple!

Who could forget Long Island New York's super group "The Illusion" play their nationwide hit "Can You See Her Eyes?" and "Since I Met You Babe" that was actually used as the intro music for Barry's show?

The Illusion recorded a song that was to become the "Turn On" theme song! They later performed on the show with a toe tapping Barry Richards off to the side grooving to one of his favorite groups!

Who could forget the legendary performance of Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band who had a whole episode set aside for them as they played songs from "Lick My Decals Off Baby" and all members were featured with solo spots complete with a childs sparking ray gun fired repeatedly in the darkened studio by Ed Marimba, all for the sake of art? You just can't make stuff like this up!

Captain Beefheart And His Magic Band, after seeing them on "Turn On" life was never quite the same!

It is important to note that these TV shows coincided with the concerts that Barry promoted at the Alexandria roller rink (See "Alexandria Roller Rink Alumni 1971") and would feature some of the bands playing that venue or elsewhere in the Washington Metro Area!

Well, unfortunately I was one of the few if any who payed attention to "Turn On" as hardly anyone from Washington,D.C. remembers it! The people I know who did see it have kept their friendships with me going all these years as if viewing this masterpiece of a show was tantamount to a mass U.F.O sighting!

These shows were so important to rock history and had all but disappeared until my friend and I got a tip in 1983 about somebody who had owned a reel to reel video recorder back in 1971 and had recorded a bunch of the shows! We contacted him and were told that he would not meet with us in person but would have a friend meet us and let us in his house to operate the ancient video recorder while I inputed my brand new VCR to make copies! I remember this all feeling very 007 like! Needless to say we hot footed it over to the house with my VCR in hand to start duplicating copies!

We arrived and were let in by the friend who immediately informed us that he only had permission to let us have 1 hour with the machine and that was all! I privately joked with my friend that we had just walked in to a video whorehouse!

He then brought out the archaic reel to reel machine that must have been made out of lead because it almost broke the table as he set it down!

When we got everything hooked up and running, we noticed that the tape heads on the old unit were not stabilizing the tape very well and the tracking kept drifting, creating terrible glitches! This was most evident towards the beginning of the tape but got settled down toward the middle as the opposing tape spool got fuller. Unfortunately one of the biggest finds on the tape was the Illusion's performance and was near the beginning and was plagued with unwatchable glitches! We remained calm and on the 6th try we manually adjusted the tracking as we went and managed to get the best it was going to offer us and it was nothing real great but you could watch at least some of it!

Then came Crow's segment which was much better with only 2 very small tremors in the visual part of the tape! All three songs were intact!

Alice Cooper's performance was missing the second song "Black Ju Ju" but Eighteen was still there!

Unfortunately that was all he had captured and it was all in black and white ta boot as the show had originally aired in color! Their were so many bands on that show that were missing from that 11 year old tape! Fortunately for us though we had managed to capture the last remnant of a historic TV show and were extremely lucky to now have it in our possession! We knew that there weren't many of those tape machines around in the 1970's! Back then they were state of the art and extremely expensive! The odds of anybody ever recording "Turn On" with one of these antiques were nil at best!

It was a unit much like this that held the only footage left of "The Illusion" and "Crow's" performance on the "Barry Richards' Turn On"!

Flash to 2008! I was puttering around my house one weekend and got a phone call from a man named Eli who was half my age but seemed to know everything about "Turn On"! He told me that he had been in touch with Barry Richards himself and was making a deal to buy the original tapes from him which he had thankfully removed from WDCA TV where they had been stored!

Eli told me that he had plans to release the old shows on DVD in a collectors box set which I was overjoyed about! Unfortunately a lot of these videos had been destroyed in a house flood at Barry's years ago but he had managed to save the majority of them! Eli like me saw the historical importance of these shows with their time capsule accuracy! I told him that I had a few shows on tape! He was already aware of that fact and that's why he had contacted me! He asked me if I would include my footage which contained performances that had been destroyed in the aforementioned house flood? Of course I agreed!

I then set him up with his own copies of what I had managed to get way back in 1983!We have kept in touch every other week to this day as he updates me on the progress of his fantastic project! A real breakthrough came when his inquires lead him to a color version of the Bob Seger System's ultra-heavy performance! This was landmark because this had been on the first episode of "Turn On"!

For me to say any more would give away too much about this iconic TV show before it is released on DVD! The important news is that it will once again show itself on old school rock fan's TV screens for the first time in almost 4 decades! This time it will be offered to the whole world for it's viewing pleasure and in most places for the first time! "Turn On" was a real piece of rock history and is poised and ready to jump out of obscurity and into your living rooms to make history all over again!

In the words of Barry Richards himself so many years ago at the end of each show, "PEACE, LOVE, BY - CYCLE!!!!!!

Sunday, November 16, 2008

I would do very well living on a desert island providing that I had a makeshift turntable and a local spider monkey to turn the crank to my portable generator! It would also help out immensely if I had an endless food supply, plenty of fire wood and a beautiful local native girl that whispered naughty things in my ear in a strange and exotic dialect! She also would be required to peel grapes!

In theory if all of these necessities were in place I would now only need my top 40 favorite albums and my world would be in balance! Let's take a peek at these vinyl gemstones and let me explain why they are paramount to my survival!

The Rolling Stones- 12x5

Brian Jones on the Ed Sullivan Show 1964

# 1 - "12 X 5 " THE ROLLING STONES

"12x5" The Rolling Stones - 1964 This was The Rolling Stones' 2nd LP on London Records.The album kicks off with the down and dirty "Around And Around" which has one of the best drum sounds recorded for that time. The band is extremely tight and professional sounding. It's no wonder they captured the world's attention especially after the hard rock masterpiece "It's All Over Now" and from what I understand it is Brian Jones not Keith Richards playing the descending power chords that made this one famous! This is the album that started it all! Raw and tight!#2 - " REVOLUTION" Q65

Another killer of a record and way beyond it's time is "Revolution" by Holland's Q65! These guys were virtually unknown in America during the British Invasion years but apparently their fame preceded them in Europe in the mid 1960's. Sounding very much like a total mixture of The Rolling Stones , The Yardbirds and The Kinks, Q65 steamrolled over all the competition with their brand of high volume teen angst! They went on to be a heavy rock band in the late 1960's and early 1970's without losing their identity or song writing style it just got louder and heavier!

#3 - "VINCEBUS ERUPTUM" BLUE CHEER #4 " OUTSIDE INSIDE" BLUE CHEER

As I've mentioned in another entry, Blue Cheer's first two LP's were the turning point for things to come! Their incredible debut album "Vincebus Eruptum" was a true unanticipated shocker to the music industry when bands like the Archies were spewing bubble gum hits on the radio!

Their rendition of the Eddie Cochran tune "Summertime Blues" was a nation wide top 10 hit! Another song on the album, "Doctor Please" was an 8 1/2 minute barrage of feedback moaning SG guitar and pounding jungle drums topped with Dickie Peterson's nails on a chalk board cries for help!I'm sure their has been more than one career launched off of their formula but it is rarely admitted by the bands that ripped them off!

"Outside Inside'' was the even heavier follow up album with the heaviest song ever recorded, "Just A Little Bit"! This album also has much more variety than the first and by this time they were also more experienced in the studio.

"Vincebus Eruptum" is the album that defined the formula for heavy metal for all time!

Early article in "Disco Scene Magazine" with a most uncomplimentary view of "Vincebus Eruptum"! This shows the narrow mindedness of the times! All things great in music and art often begin as heresy! CLICK on photos to enlarge!

"Outside Inside" Blue Cheer 1968 A classic heavy album that deserves many listens!

Rare articles from various rock magazines on the making of "Outside Inside" Just CLICK on photos to enlarge!

#5 - "KICK OT THE JAMS" MC5

MC5's "Kick Out The Jams" was the most radical call to arms ever recorded by a band until the punk rock era! Just the opening speech alone is worth the price of admission! This record was recorded live at Deroit's Grande Ballroom. The recording is very clear and powerful for it's time!You can just here the teenage anxiety of living in a country embroiled in a war that was never ment to be won channeling through these 5 futurists called the MC5 and out the speakers in to your living room!

I doubt if the world will ever hear a record like this again! The title track is awesome along with the ultra-heavy Troggs cover "I want you Right Now" and the world's first space rock song "Star Ship" a cover by Sun Ra!

Kick Out The Jams Mother F**kers!!!

The late, great Rob Tyner.

The wild and woolly "Brother" Wayne Kramer"!!!

Dennis Thompson

"The Motor City Five"!!!!

MC5's Debut album, "Kick Out The Jams" was a teenager's war cry in 1969! The record was so contriversioul that the later pressings were edited with the words Mother F**ker removed from the beginning of the title track!

Mountain, featuring guitarist Leslie West had their day like all of the rest of these bands and played it loud, raw and heavy! The first release is simply called, "Leslie West Mountain" as to suggest it might be a solo project. Leslie is joined by ex-Cream producer Felix Pappalardi and N.D. Smart II . They appeared at Woodstock and later hired Canadian skin basher Corky Laing.

Their 2nd release "Climbing " features the hit "Mississippi Queen" and also contains the heavy hits, "Sittin' On A Rainbow" with the world's first thrash metal bass drum pattern and "Never In My Life" a heavy chunk of blues rock played in half time!

1971 saw the release of the epic, "Nantucket Sleighride" that was filled with goodies for our heavy needs like my personal favorite, "Don't Look Around"!

Also in 1971 "Flowers of Evil" was released with live material on side B. The live segment of "Dreams Of Milk And Honey" is completely over the top with a long kick ass jam that proves their superior musicianship!

#10 - "LIVE AT LEEDS" THE WHO

The Who made their mark early in the 1960's with "My Generation" but came of age around the time they recorded this slice of blasting riff-o-rama! From beginning to end the Who plow through their pop hits like a runaway freight train with spontaneous prowess and million watt blunders that are so dear to our hearts!!

I always preferred hearing Townsend playing a Gibson SG as I did Eric Clapton! On this album it's being utilized to it's over-driven Hiwattlimits! When Pete kicks in the fuzz all hell breaks loose like a fight between Godzilla and Rodan!

Keith Moon's drumming defies description as he beats the living crap out of everything in sight and sometimes even plays the drums! John Entwistle redefines bass playing for eternity and Roger Daltry proves himself as one of rock's greatest vocalists!

My favorite cut from this record is "My Generation" and it's segued barrel of hits! Also everyone's favorite, "Shakin' All Over"! The entire show is now available on a double CD which is even better! "Live At Leeds" is the perfect blueprint for any band deciding that they want to be an arena act!

Nowadays The Who are not thought of much as being a heavy rock band as they have been embraced by the middle of the road VH1 crowd who mostly follow U2 and Phil Collins but for those of us who saw them in the post Woodstock era they are remembered as one of the heaviest bands in the world! They had a bigger hand in developing what we know today as being heavy metal than they are given credit for! We all owe them a huge debt of gratitude for that!

In the 1960's The Move may have been one of England's all time greatest pop bands but in 1970 they released the ultra heavy rock masterpiece "Shazam"! I first heard them on an A&M compilation album called "Friends" that had a picture of a guy in an ape suit shagging a guy in a chicken outfit!

The featured song was the heavy rocker "Hello Susie" with swelling twelve string electric guitar accompanied by a pounding rhythm section in Bev Bevan and Rick Price all backing the extremely harsh brummy voice of the mad scientist himself, Roy Wood!

At 13 years old I was mighty impressed! So much so that I soon after bought the album and the following year I bought "Looking On". This album continued the heavy legacy they started with "Shazam" with the impossibly massive "Turkish Tram Conductor Blues" and the equally heavy, "Brontosaurus"! This platter also went deeper into Roy Wood's obsession with oboes , horns and Bassoons, all instruments that don't belong in rock & roll, or do they?

Then came their final album "Message From The Country" and the departure of their highly underrated bassist, Rick Price. Roy Wood was now playing bass among a million other instruments but still keeping the signature heavy undertow that The Move relied on!

This classic album includes the morbid doomer, "It Wasn't My Idea To Dance" which featured oboes performing what would normally be guitar parts all driven by that monstrously foreboding bass line! Also The title track delivers some beautiful Sgt. Pepper like musical landscapes that would make The Beatles blush!

These three albums by The Move fit into no real category as they are written and performed by true musical geniuses!

The Move in the studio recording "Shazam" . I'm sure they were taking a big risk on this one but it paid off in a whole new direction for the band that they would follow to the end and beyond with Roy Wood's "Wizard" and E.L.O.!

The Move's "Looking On" ushered in a new line up with Jeff Lynn and a sound leaning more towards the Beatles. This didn't deter them from keeping it heavy though! Jeff's voice matched beautifully with Roy's and a new depth of sound and color was being achieved!

"Message From The Country" arrived on the scene with yet another line up change. Rick Price was gone and now Roy Wood was the bassist among other instrument duties on this album! Roy's bass playing duplicated the earlier albums and also went further by almost being the entire center piece of the album" as he demonstrates so well along side the many woodwinds and chorusing vocals!

Groundhogs are some what of an enigma in the heavy rock world as they were once John Lee Hooker's backing band in the 1960's. Their first 2 albums carry some of that vibe with them but in 1969 they released "Thank Christ For The Bomb", a classic heavy rock album with some of the oddest guitar and bass counterpoint riffs ever devised by man!

This band has no comparisons anywhere on this lonely planet! There is a constant sense of dread in T.S. McPhee's bluesy voice singing the laments of a dying society along with tales of love gone bad!

Their 3rd installment "Split" is equally if not more depressing for art's sake with the perfectly disjointed "Junk Man" and the loud rocking "Cherry Red"! Guitarist Tony McPhee serves up healthy portions of Tycho Brahe Wah Wah solos that mimic a fleet of plumbers clearing out blocked service lines from your house! He also indulges in manipulating white noise from his many stomp boxes and dragging us all into a ring modulated hell! Brilliant!!!

The band later changed line ups with the departure of "Powerful" Ken Pustelnik on the drums.He was replaced by Clive Brooks ex-Egg drummer and 2 albums were recorded, "Hogwash" & "Solid" both being masterpieces that propelled them into the mid 1970's with a slightly more futuristic sound employing Mellotron! I like both versions of the band as all their albums were equal ground breaking efforts!

Groundhogs paved the way for doom metal decades before it became a genre of music with the classic album's "Thank Christ For The Bomb" and "Split"!

Groundhogs broke new ground in 1972 with "Hogwash" and added progressive rock elements with the introduction of Mellotron and many new effect units. The same goes for "Solid" which also showcases tremendous song writing geared with the future in mind!

Let's talk about WILD! Sir Lord Baltimore was Brooklyn, New York's answer to Grand Funk Railroad and Black Sabbath although they were doing it around the same time as the aforementioned bands.

This band started out as a 3 piece with John Garner- drums and vocals, Gary Justin - bass and Lou Dambra - guitar. they later became a 4 piece adding Lou's brother Joey on 2nd guitar.Their first release on Mercury was "Kingdom Come", a very heavy but sometimes out of controlalbum with lots of pounding drums and furious guitar riffs accompanied by John Garner's straight shooting vocals! A very ambitious album indeed!

There 2nd and self titled album with the trademark patchwork cover is very close to being a concept record with "Man From Manhattan" This album has some of rock music's heaviest recorded riffs present! Just check out "Woman Tamer"!

Sir Lord Baltimore was only around for a couple of years but made 2 iconic albums and toured with Black Sabbath!

# 20 - "LOVE IT TO DEATH" ALICE COOPER #21 - "KILLER" ALICE COOPER

Alice Cooper originally was one of Frank Zappa's orphaned bands in his stable of art rock crazies. I originally heard about them from a Frank Zappa Compilation album called "Zapped" but in1971 Bob Ezrin got a hold of these guys and turned them into an arena favorite! The band has always taken that view as well.

"Love It To Death" was their 3rd album but still appeared on Zappa's "Straight Records" a subsidiary of Warner Brothers. This album and tour was an absolute trend setter which later gave birth to the rise of British Glam Rock!

"Love it to Death" is a "10" from start to finish! They also reproduced these songs perfectly at their shows where Alice would sit in the electric chair in their usual finisher Black Ju Ju. "Second Coming" and "The Ballad Of Dwight Fry" segued perfectly on this album. Other hits like "Eighteen " and "Caught In A Dream " were also very strong! This album is a one of a kind!

"Killer" was Alice Cooper's 4th album and probably the one that pushed them firmly into super stardom! Bob Ezrin went all out for this one with plenty of sound effects and other ear candy. Although this was a stab at the commercial market "Killer" still has some heavy and morbid classics on board such as the masterpiece of middle eastern persuasion "Halo Of Flies" and who could forget the warning to all dead beat parents, "Dead Babies"? "You Drive Me Nervous" is another rocker classic along with "Be My Lover". This album sounds as fresh today as it did then!

"Love It To Death" brought the Alice Cooper band out of the experimental and in to the mainstream! This album is timeless!

"Killer" was the unbelievable follow up to "Love It To Death" Just when you thought it couldn't be any better!

Cover of the "Killer" tour program from 1972

Alice Cooper's "Love It To Death & "Killer " set the the tone for everything that was to come! These albums will always be classic and can never be duplicated! When I want to listen to Alice Cooper I usually don't look any further than these 2 masterpieces of shock rock!

# 22 - "BANG" BANG #23 - "MOTHER" BANG

Alice Cooper opened the door for a lot of bands with similar writing styles and one of these was Bang!

Bang came on the scene in 1971 with their self titled album. From the very first I heard Alice and Sabbath influences in their sound which was AOK with me! There was the mega heavy "Future Shock" and "Lions Christians" along with many others equally heavy! I once owned it on 8 Track tape and just let it play over and over in one big loop!

Their 2nd release "Mother"was a vast improvement on the 1st and this time they got a real drummer as their manager and co-writer barely plays drums on the 1st LP. Songs like "Idealist Realist" lay down some heavy riffs while the opus composition "Mother" really gives the listener pause to think! This is also an incredible album by the band!

Bang from 1971 "Bang" and from 1972"Mother" both albums are classics!

# 24 - "MASTER OF REALITY" BLACK SABBATH #25 - "VOL. 4" BLACK SABBATH

Black Sabbath introduced the world to a darker and harder edged sound with lyrics that delved into heavier subjects. They were to Led Zeppelin what The Stones were to the Beatles! I didn't listen to Led Zeppelin or The Beatles!

When "Master Of Reality" was released no one knew what to think as Black Sabbath had walked into the world of the ultra-heavy with songs like "Death Mask/In To The Void", "After Forever" and "Sweet Leaf"! They had found a new and etherial sound that unfortunately would only appear on this record and "Vol. 4"! They never ventured back into that phase of their writing style again. This was my favorite era of Sabbath.

"Vol. 4" also sported some classics like "Supernaut", Tomorrow's Dream" and "Snowblind"!They were definitely digging deeper into the subconscious than other bands of that time. Don't get me wrong, I love all of the Sabs albums! They are the most consistent band in history but these 2 releases have that magic touch that squarely puts them in the doom hall of fame making them an instant desert island delight!

Black Sabbath's "Master Of Reality" marked a new direction in their sound from "Paranoid" with lower tuning and over driven guitars!

Black Sabbath brought out the big guns on this ,their 4th release "Vol.4 . Very heavy like "Master Of Reality" but even more experimental!

Trapeze's "Medusa" was the first album to fuse down town funk with out and out heavy metal!"Touch My Life", "Medusa" and the doom metal lament, "Jury" are the heavies on this platter along with hard rock classic "Black Cloud"! A very honest album free of over production!

"You Are The Music , We're Just The Band" is back to more funk and soul but songs like "Way Back To The Bone" and "Loser" prove this album to be their all time heaviest! Unfortunately not too long after it's release we saw the departure of Glen Hughes to Deep Purple. Guitarist Mel Galley carried on though and managed to keep the band's integrity!

"Medusa" was the metamorphosis of Trapeze from a lounge act to a formidable heavy rock band!

Trapeze's "You Are The Music We're Just The Band" is a heavy rock masterpiece!

Budgie, discovered by Roger Bain and Tony Iommi, this 3 piece from Cardiff played the heaviest simplistic music of all time! It's a no-brainer to listen to their early albums but that doesn't mean they aren't flat out masterpieces! They most certainly are, if you love it heavy for the sake of heavy ! If so, your in for a treat especially their debut album on Kapp Records!How can you go wrong with titles like "Nude Disentigrating Parachutist Woman" a title that is as long as the song is heavy! Oddly the American Version on Kapp records features and extra track called "Crash Course In Brain Surgery" that also appears 3 years later on "In For The Kill"!

"Squawk" is Budgie's 2nd album and includes the heavy cruncher "Whiskey River" and the metal sludger "Stranded" among others!

"Never Turn Your Back On a Friend" again shows that Budgie stick to what works for them with the ultra powerful "Bread Fan" and advanced metalergist's "In the Grip Of The Tyre Fitter's Hand"!

All of Budgie's albums could be included here but remember this is a desert Island and we may have to cut some ballast!"In For The Kill" is really the other super heavy one of the bunch and the title track will floor you! "Hammer and Tongs is another blues out sludger that starts with a mist filled dream sequence with fading in and out guitars, swelling bass and tribal like sporatic drum hits!

"In For The Kill" was a great surprise in 1974 to the ailing rock scene. It brought back all those post woodstock musical values we all loved and greatly missed! The title track is a ripper!

The infamous Pink Fairies were born out of members of England's most bizzare band "The Deviants" who later recorded "Think Pink" with ex-Pretty Things drummer, Twink that in time became The Pink Fairies with their single "The Snake" and debut album "Never Never Land" in 1970!

After Twink's departure from the group they became a power trio and learned to boogie with the best of them!Their 1972 release "What A Bunch Of Sweeties" was received very well and it looked as though the Fairies had a bright future until vocalist and guitarist Paul Rudolph split from the group which made them fall back into relative obscurity!

The album features the wildest rendition of the Ventures "Walk Don't Run" in existance!And other classics like "Portebello Shuffle" rival the great ZZ Top on the hard rock & boogie richter scale! This album isn't a "10" as some of the tracks sound unfinished but the over all feel is dynamite making it a must have!

Long after the Pink Fairies disbanded, Polydor records squeezed out a greatest hits record that has to be included as it features the rare single "The Snake" and is The Pink Fairies rockingest song ever! The album also includes the best tracks from "Never Never Land" and "Kings Of Oblivion" with Larry Wallace on guitar! Rarest of all is the single "Well, Well, Well" that appeared right after "What A Bunch Of Sweeties" but unfortunately without Paul Rudolph!

This album contains the best of both worlds and is a classic anthology!

This Polydor release documented the long journey and many line up changes of the Pink Fairies from 1970 to 1973

Pink Fairies performing at the Glastonbury Fair 1970

The Pink Faireies perform in Bath at one of their many free concerts in 1970!

Pink Fairies circa 1973 with Larry Wallace ! He brought a new flavor to the band's sound!

Larry Wallis

Russell Hunter, a great out of control drummer with a heavy sound!

Duncan Sanderson of the Pink Fairies! A most underrated bassist who took on half of the vocal duties on 1973's "Kings Of Oblivion"!

#34 - "Bulletproof" Hard Stuff

Hard Stuff was at one time called Daimen but for what ever reason by the time we got their debut offering thr name had been changed to Hard Stuff and aptly so! The band has heavy credits to it's name with John DuCann of "Andromeda" and "Atomic Rooster", Paul Hammond also from "Atomic Rooster" and John Gustoffson of "Colliseum II" and who later went on to be in "Roxy Music"!

This is a heavy hitting piece of vinyl on par with "Blue Cheer" or "Budgie"!My personal favorites are "Sinister Minister", "Am No Witch At All" and the mammoth "Time Gambler"! The vinyl is now very hard to find with all it's awesome photos of the band live and in the studio and iconic cover!

"Bulletproof" is a heavy duty power trio album comparible with "Budgie" or "Blue Cheer"!

Back cover of "Daimen" aka "Hard Stuff"showing the line up with extra percussionist!

Hard Stuff L - R , John DuCann, Paul Hammond, John Gustoffson

# 35 - "STRAY DOG" STRAY DOG

Stray Dog's debut on Emerson , Lake and Palmer's Manticore Records is a classic heavy rock album featuring the untouchable power trio led by guitarist extraordinaire Snuffy Walden!

Every cut on this album is a tasty morsel of heavy rock history played with the utmost finesse and class! Prime cuts on this album are 2 cover songs , one being ZZ Top's "Chevrolet" and Bloodrock's "Crazy" which blow away the originals!

Stray Dog are tight and heavy for your listening pleasure!

#36 - "CAPTAIN BEYOND" CAPTAIN BEYOND

Captain Beyond"s debut self titled album needs no introduction if you know your rock history!It is still to this day considered a masterpiece among record collectors and is a fantastic concept album with phenomenal playing throughout!

Ex- Deep Purple front man Rod Evans gives the album a touch of class with his vocal style as Lee Dorman and Bobby Caldwell lay down an awesome fast paced rhythm section while Rhino's heavy Hendrix style guitar work sends this platter in to outer space!

Captain Beyond - Montreux 1972 first show!

Rod Evans - Bickershall Festival U.K. 1972

"Rhino" Rhineheart - lead guitar at the Hollywood Bowl 1972

Rod Evans - Paris 1972

#37- "Mournin'" Night Sun

I remember the first time I heard this album, it was 1974 and it just throttled me!Night Sun's "Mournin'" is an eclectic mix of large doses of Black Sabbath with early Deep Purple Leslie driven Hammond organ and Richie Blackmore style stratocaster!"Living With The Dying" is the real hit on this album along with "I've Got A Bone Of My Own" which has the first sax accompaniment on a heavy rock album! The whole album is a killer start to finish and does not disappoint!This apparently was a one off album by some German studio musicians as it was recorded in Essen in 1972! That's about all I know of them outside their music!This album stands alone and seriously outdoes other Gothic German bands of the time like Nosferatu and Lucifer's Friend!

Germany's Night Sun outdid themselves in 1972 with their classic album "Mournin'"! This album is a must for fans of Black Sabbath , old Deep Purple and Uriah Heep!

These 2 classic albums by John McGlaughlin and super group featuring Billy Cobham (ex-"Weather Report"drums), Jerry Goodman (ex-"Flock" electric violinist), Jan Hammer (keyboards) and Rick Laird (bass) were the catalyst that started the fusion jazz momvement and created a new genre of music for the mainstream!

The performances on these albums are stellar and at times untouchable with impossible time changes overlapping with equally as challenging counterpoint!

I saw these guys live in their brief run and was stunned by their performance! Brilliant!

Mahavishnu Orchestra set the bar so high that most musicians and record companies alike couln't keep up, ultimately killing a legitimate genre within the mainstream!

#40 - "Hymn Of The Seventh Galaxy" Chick Corea & Return To Forever

Chick Corea's "Hymn Of The Seventh Galaxy" is the other great jazz fusion album among listeners to this genre! This album is dynamic and superb from beginning to end!

Bill Conners guitar work is decidedly heavy and emotional and stirs up a potent cocktail of progressive rock as the rest of the band, Stanley Clarke, Lenny White and Chick Corea journey through the artier realms of funk jazz!

All of this packs a powerful punch that leaves the listener drained but also invites multiple listenings! A true classic!

These are the albums I love best! These are the most consistent through and through! There are hundreds more that I would love to add that epitomise heavy rock but these I've listed I just couldn't do without! My collection is very extensive and it was very hard to narrow my choices down to 40 of these classics but I think these that I have chosen had the greatest impact on my playing and my rock & roll spirit! Maybe in the future I will do the "B" list which hardly deserves that title! Many of those records have only a few heavy classics mixed in with some fluff to appeal to a more diverse audience.

Thank you for taking the time to read the dreaded Desert Island List and if you haven't heard some of these, I suggest you do! Now if you will excuse me, I'll get back to the business of being a metal castaway on my beach of decibels and my island woman who is now about to peel my grapes! Aloha!!!!!

About Me

I am a career musician and have recorded 27 albums and toured the world many times with N.W.O.B.H.M. legends, "Raven". I also have been involved in many side projects with other recording artists also including recording albums and touring. I am a father of 2.